Brash Robbers Burst Into 3rd Home In Seminole County

WINTER PARK — Three times in eight days, men have forced their way into Seminole County homes, bound women in plastic handcuffs and searched for valuables.

Sheriff's detectives believe the three incidents are related. No one was hurt.

In the first two crimes, the suspects pretended to be police. In the latest, the men simply pointed a gun at their victim and walked into her home.

According to a sheriff's report, a 31-year-old woman was alone Thursday night in her home in Sorrento Apartments in Seminole County near Winter Park. Around 7 p.m., she answered a knock at her door and found two men on her doorstep, one aiming a blue steel handgun.

One of the men put his hand over the woman's mouth and took her into her living room. They bound the woman's hands and feet with plastic handcuffs and put a jacket over her head. They ransacked the apartment, stealing about $150.

The victim described her attackers as ''red-neck types'' who talked with a ''country accent.'' The man with the gun was about 6 feet tall, weighed 185 pounds, was about 25 years old and had short black hair. He was wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt.

The second was about 6 feet tall, weighed 185 pounds, was about 25, had short blond hair and was wearing jeans and a T-shirt.

The descriptions match those of men who have pretended to be police officers during two other Seminole County burglaries. On Wednesday, two men knocked on the door of a home near Longwood. When a woman answered, the men flashed police badges and barged into the house.

The woman asked to see the badges again, and one of the men pulled out a gun. The attackers bound the woman in plastic handcuffs and threatened to rape her. They stole more than $5,000 in jewelry, leaving the woman on a kitchen floor. She crawled outside and was freed by neighbors.

On Jan. 25, two teen-age girls were in a back yard near Winter Springs when three men approached, all claiming to be police.

They took the girls into the house, bound their legs and arms and left them in a bathroom.

The men asked for drugs and searched the house, but they took nothing. The girls remained in the bathroom for four hours until a relative freed them.